


On the Job

by iimpavid



Category: DCU
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Slice of Life, if slice of life means murder, not quite case fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:19:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12625041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iimpavid/pseuds/iimpavid
Summary: Another day in the rat race.





	On the Job

Jason will be among the first to argue that he’s perfectly sane—at least by the legal definitions. He knows right from wrong, is aware that according to most laws vigilantism is illegal, doubly so when you introduce murder, he doesn’t labor under the delusion that some higher power is guiding the sights of his gun and making him squeeze the trigger… But sometimes he doubts himself. Like now. Waiting in broad daylight across from some dive bar that doesn’t have enough business to be open but, inexplicably, is. He’s settled into a bright simmer somewhere at the intersection of thrilled, hungry, and enraged. **  
**

 

It’s always fun to stalk stalkers—they have this bizarre idea that somehow they’re at the top of the food chain, that their victims not noticing them gives them makes them immune to the same treatment. If Jason were the patient type he’d draw this out more, drop hints over the course of weeks, let the terror truly settle in.

 

But Morris Gardner has murdered three women already before Jason caught up with him and Jason’s itching to kill the guy. They keep him up at night. Melody Amherst. Sandra Clare. Kylie Montag. They all looked like ex who found herself floating in the river off Cape Carmine when she tried to break up with him. The same curling dark hair and brilliant green eyes, the stardust of freckles across their noses. It would be fitting to strangle Gardner but it’s so much more immediate, more satisfying to shoot him and—

 

There he goes, slinking out of the bar in a shirt that’s stained with sweat at the pits and collar because of course some filth can’t be bothered with dry cleaning. Just like that Jason’s out of his head and in his skin, alive and buzzing.

 

Gardner heads straight across the street without looking up, not quite drunk just yet but close enough to be comfortable; not paying attention to his surroundings. He heads straight into Jason’s alley and Jason picks himself up off the ground to stumble along after, a matching drunk for the sake of appearances, pulling on his cowl as he goes.

 

Gardner tries to run when he finally glances back and realizes the magnitude of his situation, goes clambering up the wooden fence at the end of the alley. Jason lets him get to the curled barbed wire guarding the top and shoves him into it before dragging him back down, razors and splinters making his point for him.

 

“No situational awareness,” he scolds, clicking his tongue in Gardner’s ear while keeping him shoved up against the fence with a hand tight on the back of his neck. “What am I gonna do with you?”

 

It’s a little like Christmas. It’s only natural to want to do a little decorating—but given that he’s got a murderer to work with instead of a tree he has to get a little creative with the blood and bruises and broken bones.

 

Most of them repent in the end and it sucks for them that Jason isn’t about absolution.

 

Gardner does the same, lots of “Please, I’ll give you anything,” and “I’m so sorry I’ll stop, I’ll do anything” and other undefined platitudes that do nothing for him. Roughing him up a little, breaking his jaw, makes Jason feel a little better—better than what, he’s not exactly sure.

 

“Oh, Morris,” he says it with pity he doesn’t feel, “are you so sorry.”

 

The stream of babble cuts into a, “Yes!”

 

Jason steps back, lets him go. The poor sap’s too rattled to do much more than wet himself. “Huh, that’s weird. ‘Cause I’m not.” And shoots him.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr.](https://papermoon-cardboardsea.tumblr.com/) [Twitter.](https://twitter.com/iimpavid)


End file.
